


Put a Spin on It

by mixthealphabet



Series: And It Grows [13]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Fluff, Part of a series for a reason, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 18:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixthealphabet/pseuds/mixthealphabet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What could she say? He made her smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Put a Spin on It

_You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed, sing like a bird, dizzy in my head, spin like a record, crazy on a Sunday night. You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe, shine like gold, buzz like a bee; just the thought of you can drive me wild. Oh, you make me smile._

Spring afternoons in Magnolia always carried a kind of vague cheeriness. As it is common, flowers bloomed, people talked and boats floated down the now unfrozen river. What had been whites and greys during the winter sparked with new life, coloring the grounds as a sure sign of the new season.

If the citizens had been quieter during the icy December, by the end of May, they were bursting with energy.

It was in this scenario of loud crowds and animated talk that one Lucy Heartfilia found herself, sighing with a heaviness that was completely uncharacteristic of the celestial mage. She was, after all, known for her animated – if a bit fiery – temper, and her kindness.

Thirty days to the beginning of summer, however, joy was the last thing she felt.

Things had started well: She'd woken up to her best friend's warmth and to the light scent of flowers that, as usual, flooded her room. Happy had somehow found a way between them, like children between their parents, resting his head against her stomach with his tail around Natsu's wrist. The feeling of them curled up with her in such a chaste manner had Lucy thinking, once again, about the ideas of  _home_  and  _family_  that they liked to thrown around, as if it meant nothing.

For a girl whose concept of family life consisted of a distant father and a lot of servants – mixed with the few memories she still possessed of her mother's gentleness –, it meant everything.

Nevertheless, Lucy had detached herself from the two, knowing full well that her to-do list was sitting in the kitchen table and that it indicated all the tasks that would be left undone if she didn't get to them  _pronto_.

To say that things had gone downhill from that moment would be an understatement.

The market place had been filled with people, resulting in three hours spent trying to buy what was needed and a whole lot of annoyances; yelling kids, rude parents, men and their catcalls, and even an old woman with a cane that insisted Lucy had grabbed her cheese.

After an eternity in what could only be described as hell, the girl was more than ready to return home, but also knew that, once there, her laziness and the comfort of her friends' presence would only serve to keep her in bed for the rest of the day.

So, out of some ridiculous sense of responsibility, Lucy decided to postpone her lunch and just head for the dressmaker.

As it turned out, her new uniform – which she had been excited to see finished since the previous week – had suffered a terrible accident in the hands of the shop's new trainee. It would take at least another two weeks until they got that kind of fabric again, and the girl left empty-handed, sadness coating the anger that had already settled in the pit of her stomach.

It was then that Lucy was surrounded by an ever growing crowd. Initially, it had been a group of outsiders, some people from the less troubled areas of Fiore who'd seen her in a mission and who had, since, leant about the "legend" of the celestial mage of Fairy Tail.

Despite the pride she had in her rising reputation, the blonde wasn't happy to realize that no matter how many hands she shook, nor how many smiles she gave, the attention given to her only attracted more attention; people attracted more people.

When Lucy was finally able to disentangle herself, she was late for her appointment with a publisher.

And that was probably where her day took a definite turn for the worse, for when the girl walked into the editor's office, sweaty and famished, frantically searching for the manuscript that was somewhere in the mess of bags she carried, the looks sent in her direction were anything but  _cheerful_.

An hour or two later – she had lost track of time –, Lucy Heartfilia stood in the middle of a familiar street, frozen in what could be seen as reverie, but was actually a complete blankness. In her confusion of anger and sadness and  _rejection_ , the girl had opted for the path that, in her mind, caused the least destruction. She felt numb.

"I'm home." The girl announced, walking into the apartment with the pace of a dead man who still hadn't noticed his own terrible fate.

From within the kitchen there were noises, but Lucy couldn't find it in herself to yell at her two roommates. Everything about her appearance spoke of misery: the downturn of her lips, the glassy shine in her eyes, the lack of grace with which she dropped herself in her bed, letting the groceries fall to the ground.

Movement behind her alerted Lucy to Natsu's entrance, but she didn't turn, choosing to bury her face in the mattress. The physical manifestation of nothingness wasn't a conscious choice, of course, and this only seemed to worry the boy further.

He kneeled besides the bed, gaze running down her body in search for possible wounds or signs of fight. Natsu had never actually seen a mage in such conditions, but his thought had instantly gone to stories told by grandpa Makarov, about the mental afflictions that could accompany  _destruction_. In his tales, though, that destruction took the form of violation, a degree of violence that the boy felt ill even thinking about.

There were many sick people in this world.

But Lucy still smelled like Lucy; a scent that he found sweet, despite his inability to pinpoint each individual fragrance.

"Are you okay?" Natsu questioned anyway, his hand hovering over her arm as he debated whether to touch her or not.

"Yeah."

Her response came muffled by fabric, in a tone that lacked any infliction.

Natsu frowned, forehead wrinkling as he searched his mind for some clue to what could have bothered his partner to such an extent. All he could remember, though, was how Lucy had ranted about finishing her new book and how she had gotten an interview with some publisher.

She didn't like the idea of using Fairy Tail's name to propel her writing career, so the girl had used a pseudonym.

He felt a surge of affection, softly smiling down at Lucy. She had all these rules, all these predefined concepts of what life was, and her resistance to changes really should have annoyed the dragon slayer, but they simply made her look more enchanting.

Natsu propped his chin against the mattress, nuzzling her back.

"Is this about the book?"

Lucy didn't reply, but the tenseness of her body was enough of an answer.

There seemed to be a moment of silence in which his words hanged in the air, too clumsy and too blunt to be anything but a bitter reminder of everything that had already gone wrong in the girl's day.

"I just want to be alone, Natsu." She whispered, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder.

The boy pouted, dark eyes boring into hers. He wanted to make sure nothing bad had happened, Lucy understood that, but she really couldn't handle having to measure her words around Natsu when all she felt was the panicked edge of frustration.

Enough expectations and hopes had been broken; her book wasn't that great, giving it her best had resulted in nothing, and Lucy of Fairy Tail was, once again, the fragile Lucy Heartfilia.

"I really don't like this." Natsu grumbled and his expression of discontent was so ridiculous that it made her lips twist into an almost smile.

She knew she was being extremely dramatic about the whole thing, there would be other books, other publishers, but this knowledge did little to soothe the sick feeling in her stomach.

"It's okay." She said, rolling closer to him. "I just want to wallow in self-pity for a bit. Maybe take a nap."

Natsu grinned at her poor attempt at a joke, patting the top of her head like he would do to Happy, before leaving the bedroom.

An hour or so later, Lucy woke up for the second time that day. The curtains had been pulled shut, but the absence of the orange haze that usually covered the room told her she had missed the sunset, though not for much. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes, her mind still confused over when she'd actually fallen asleep and why she'd awakened.

A sudden thumping noise answered that last question.

The celestial mage stood up quickly, both curious and afraid of what she might find in her kitchen. Leaving Natsu and Happy to their own devices was never a very good option, because one was a pyromaniac and the other was a fish-addict without the ability to understand common sense.

She shuddered to imagine the havoc they could have created in a whole day of unsupervised "fun".

Whatever her overactive mind had come up with, it certainly was nowhere near the image the girl found: Natsu scolding Happy, as the exceed tried to balance himself on a thin line that was somehow extended across the room.

"No wings, this time! We need to do this right!"

Lucy blinked once and then twice, inching her head to the side, as if incorporating all the clichés of body language that could represent confusion.

"What exactly are the two of you trying to do?" She inquired after a period of baffled observation, amusement dripping from her words.

Natsu turned to her, his expression going from surprised to displeased.

"You were supposed to be in bed." He complained.

"Yeah, and you weren't supposed to be playing tightrope in my kitchen, but here we are." Lucy laughed, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward in that manner that always served to make the boys sweat.

Happy panicked.

"She caught us! Run!" He took flight, but Natsu grabbed his tail, gently pulling him down.

"It's okay, Happy, we weren't doing anything wrong." He grinned, walking to Lucy and throwing an arm over her shoulders. "It was going to be a surprise, but Luce had to ruin it."

The girl puffed her cheeks, glaring at her best friend.

"I didn't ruin anything, you were the idiots who couldn't keep it down!"

Happy smiled from his perch on her table.

"Lucy ruined it, but watch, still!" The cat told her, before climbing onto the rope.

She laughed at his attempt, entertained by the expressions of fright and relief that alternated with each other as he lost his footing, only to regain it after a moment. She applauded.

"What  _is_  this?" The mage asked, grinning, when Happy finally finished his course, bowing exaggeratedly. By her side, Natsu scoffed, detaching himself and joining the other in a bow.

"Circus o' Fairy Tail, of course!"

Lucy stared, desperately trying to suppress her laughter as she muttered a soft "Of course".

"It's because you were sad, Lu-cy." The cat explained in a sing-song voice, already opening a can of tuna from the groceries she'd bought that morning. "Natsu said your book was probably rejected."

His bluntness, like Natsu's before, provoked a spark of irritation that was soon quelled by the sadness she still felt.

"They are idiots; worse than Gray, that pervert, or Gajeel, the illiterate lightning rod. I liked it! Especially the part about the demon actually being a protecting spirit!" The pinkette declared, thrusting a fist into the air in an aggressive manner. He stumbled over the word illiterate, and color rushed to his cheeks as he realized the information he'd just given her.

"You read it?"

They had obviously expected her to snap at Natsu for reading something private, but there was a timidity to her expression that wasn't normally present. She smiled, looking down at her feet and tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

The boy opened his mouth to say something, but stopped at the smell of salt that had suddenly appeared. Tears welled up in her eyes, and Lucy tried to brush them off, embarrassed by how weak she probably looked to Natsu, shifting from anger to melancholy with such ease.

"Damn, she's at it again." She heard the boy whisper to the blue feline. "Quick, plan B!"

As Happy fled from the kitchen, still carrying the canned fish, Lucy almost followed. She had grown weary again, because the plans that duo produced usually didn't end too well for her. The girl was, however, hindered from spying on the exceed, as Natsu took hold of her hand and pulled, drawing her closer to him.

She was instantly reminded of that day months ago, the boy's birthday, when she'd insisted to teach him that exact dance, to the exact song that now played, coming from the living room. Her bafflement melted into tenderness, and she laughed when Natsu spun them, navigating their bodies away from the furniture.

"This is surprising." Lucy commented in a tone that hid how affected by the gesture she truly was. It wasn't enough, because the dragon slayer smirked, obviously pleased with himself.

"I'm taking that as a good thing." He stated, a grin of such joy in his lips that Lucy found her mouth twisting in that same way. Her eyes still weren't dry, but she blinked away the tears, satisfied that he hadn't realized them to be a representation of how touched by his compliments she actually was.

This time, when the song got to a quicker pace, Natsu twirled her.

When Lucy was little, she had imagined many times what the man of her dreams would be like. In her mind, he would be somewhat like her father: polite, tall, someone with a sparkling reputation to match his sparkling demeanor. She hoped he would be caring, though, and smart and funny.

He would read lots of books, which would make him a great person to talk, because he would know things like economy and politic, but he would also have unlimited passion for those alternate universes she adored so much.

As a child, the girl thought she would fall in love with the perfect man.

Years later, as a completely different person, in a completely different home, Lucy laughed as she danced and as Natsu tripped over his feet, unexpectedly glad that she hadn't fallen for her dream guy.

Lucy Heartfilia was in love with Natsu Dragneel, with all his imperfections, because he was destructive and protective, her best friend, who understood little of what she said and even less of what she did, but who would train his cat to walk in a tightrope just to cheer her up and slow dance until her scowl disappeared.

What could she say? He made her smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm late again, but my life is such a mess that I'm not even sure. I really enjoyed writing this, because the adorableness of it all came to me and just wouldn't leave.
> 
> The song is Smile, by Uncle Kracker. Old as balls, I know.


End file.
